Airswap ICO Review & Analysis

Summary:

As the Ethereum network continues to grow in transaction volume and scalability there is an increasing demand for decentralized exchanges that are more secure and just as liquid compared to the current market solutions such as Bittrex and GDAX. Not only would these solutions remove counterparty risk but they are becoming crucial to the development of the ecosystem as more users demand a wider variety of ERC20 tokens to utilize platforms and rebalance their tokenized portfolios.AirSwap aims to provide an alternative to the current way of exchanging one ERC20 token for another by implementing a protocol in which tokens can be traded peer to peer without the inefficiencies of current centralized solutions.

The AirSwap solution is simple, first you will broadcast your intent to trade to the network. After you broadcast your desired trade you will get matched up with a liquidity provider who will fill your order based on an agreed upon price facilitated by voted upon oracles. After this agreement occurs your exchange will occur atomically using smart contracts. No centralized exchanged holding your tokens, no risk of a third party holding your private keys being shut down.

AirSwap, the solution behind the decentralization exchange solution, is holding its token sale October 10th, and will aiming to raise around $32 million by minting 500,000 million AST tokens. Providing a “off-chain negotiation, with an on-chain settlement”, AirSwap is a ConsenSys backed project aiming to facilitate peer to peer tokenize trading on the Ethereum blockchain in as smooth as a way as possible.

What is Airswap?

AirSwap is a protocol to facilitate a true peer-to-peer ecosystem for trading tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

Problem & Solution

SECURE /DECENTRALIZATION PROTECTS YOU AND YOUR ASSETS

Centralized exchanges are subject to attacks, front-running, and abuse. Entrusting third parties to hold cryptographic assets is a significant risk to the token economy. AirSwap puts you in control of your assets.

PRIVATE / PEER-TO-PEER IS A GREAT FIT FOR BLOCKCHAIN

Blockchain was developed as an online, peer-to-peer value transfer technology. We built AirSwap to harness the same power of blockchain as a globally accessible, friction-free value network, supporting private and secure exchange between peers.

FAIR / DESIGNED FROM THE GROUND UP FOR A DECENTRALIZED WORLD

AirSwap is based on the Swap protocol, a peer-to-peer protocol for trading Ethereum tokens. Many existing exchange designs suffer front-running and race conditions. AirSwap was built with fairness in mind and sidesteps these issues.

Strengths

Very Strong Team and Advisory board lead by Michael Over and Don Mosites who have lead cryptocurrency projects before and have a strong track record in development and operations. They are currently being advised by Joe Lubin (Co-Founder Ethereum), Bill Tai (Lead Investor in Bit Fury). Not only that but based on the team’s experience in Hong Kong and Korea they may have an edge to get listed on trading exchange Binance early on in their platform roadmap.

Significant interest year to date from Crypto and business community. Not only has AirSwap been discussed on Bloomberg and Coindesk, their pre-sale was heavily desired with over $20M USD worth of AirSwap tokens (AST) being sold. Although they could have easily met their hard cap of $32M USD they still decided to allow everyday investors get in on the piece of the action and will fund $12M USD on Oct 10th.

The problem they are trying to solve truly is a gaping hole in the cryptocurrency community. It is without a doubt obvious the ERC20 market is growing at rapid speed and there continues to be more demand to exchange one token out for another. As utility tokens continue to demand their own token this will continue to increase. Thus, there needs to be a way to exchange these tokens in a manner that doesn’t involve a third party which can be shut down based on local legislation. AirSwap will allow for this creating this off chain service that aggregates and matches peers based on their intent to trade.

Weaknesses

Not much clarity on the Oracle platform that is vital for AirSwap to gain traction in the crypto community. AirSwap plans to support one or more “Oracles” to provide information that assists trading parties make educated pricing decisions. Based on their whitepaper this is a role that will be voted upon as they need to be fair and transparent. Most language doesn’t cover on how much AST will it take to become an oracle, who is eligible and how long one can be an oracle for. As it is a key part of the platform that does raise some eyebrows.

Decentralized exchanges are the hot token of the second half of 2017. After seeing the first mover EtherDelta take advantage of the Ethereum community, other token platforms such as Kyber, 0x, as well as other current centralize solutions are claiming to be the answer crypto asset exchange. As it is early one will see which platform is the correct solution but regardless AirSwap will have competition to attract users with tokens they wish to exchange.

Based on the team’s whitepaper, there may be situations where the indexer can delay or not forward some or all the messages to the participants. Some other questions which lack clarity is what is the process from preventing the indexer from also acting as a taker or maker in the market or even colluding with makers / takers. As the AirSwap team has been transparent in regards to their ICO sale I expect the questions over the indexers boundaries to be answered in full as its platform develops

Our Verdict:

AirSwap is aiming to provide an answer for the growing demand for a decentralized solution in the crypto community. Although only focused on the Ethereum Network, AirSwap has a solution that looks to be the most efficient way for users to exchange their crypto tokens in a liquid, private manner. Gone are the days of having to trust that an exchange is not holding your private keys online, gone are the days of having to move all your coins offline out of fear of government regulation or breached security.

The AirSwap ICO is the first step in their product roadmap as they work towards their decentralized solution. Based on review of the AirSwap platform, the team’s leadership and advisors, as well as its interaction within the community we believe that the AirSwap token is a good buy in the long term outlook as it will fill a necessary pain in the industry once development is executed.

In the short term, it is obvious there is a large demand for AST tokens as the AirSwap solution gathered interest from hedge funds such as Kenetic Capital, Blockchain Partners Korea and FBG. Even more so their presale sold out within a day leaving many future investors waiting for their tokens to hit the market a week after minting, that being said we must be aware of the current market conditions and so it may not deliver like KNC or ZRX.

In the long term, we believe the team will deliver on their promise to build a decentralized exchange that is not only efficient in matching buyers and sellers off chain but that will utilize a process that is fair to elect oracles. If this occurs not only will their solution help the crypto community gain traction but early investors will reap the monetary rewards as AST tokens increase in demand.

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About Us

We are fast becoming the authority hub for all ICO, Crypto and Blockchain news. Our mission is to help and bring accurate and transparent educational content on blockchain, crypto assets and ICO's to fellow crypto enthusiasts.